Here is a quick bullet list of my Windows 8 experience on a non-touch laptop:
- Installation was smooth, but I had to check how to dual boot.
- Dual booting on Work laptop is cool. Windows 7 for the work stuff as a member of domain and all. Windows 8 for personal stuff without any link to corporate network so I don't have to bother about website restrictions or anti virus updates from office.
- Start screen looks awesome with colorful and cool tiles.
- Then a little confused, moving mouse to top right corner all the time to get to charm bar for accessing settings, etc. By the time I move pointer down to the required icon, sometimes charm bar will disappear.
- Next was activation issue. It won't activate as it was enterprise copy. Got a solution for that too.
- Installed some games and apps. Not very fast. And sometimes they crash. Cut the Rope never loaded.
- Then realized that there are no apps to play music files.
- Installed Music app from store.
- Still not smooth. Music won't play sound. XBox linking is not working. Some other apps play sound (like MineSweeper). Tried many solutions suggested on net including updating drivers. Nothing helped.
- Decided to Refresh PC. But I had no DVD. Again there was a solution.
- I was thinking it will remove just store apps. But it did not. Instead it removed everything else including Visual Studio. Still not good. No sound in Music, Games kept crashing.
- Tried Reset PC. Everything clean now. But still not good. No sound in Music, most games kept crashing.
- Decided to stick to VLC Player for playing music and video on desktop.
- Realized now that no good games are working on my laptop. May be it's an issue of graphic drivers? But it should tell me instead of resisting to load with no error messages.
- Getting back to Desktop often... but even that is confusing with no start button there.
Conclusion:
I would prefer Windows 7 if my system is non-touch. I understand there are some extra features in Windows 8 like fast booting, less RAM consumption which are good and also some fancy features like new copy dialogue and picture password option. I will give them a pass until I get a touch system. But again, would I buy a touch laptop? No I guess... a tablet with Windows 8 pro would be a better option there. And for home, an all in one big screen touch PC with Windows 8.